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So, I’ve talked about this before, but I want to dig deeper. What we’re talking about today is the duality of strong emotions. How can we use them to create conflict, atmosphere, and a powerful resolution? Let’s talk about that.

It starts with love and hate.

So I want you to think about something or someone that you love. There are many kinds of love, in case you didn’t know that. The Greeks mention several:

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If you don’t know the song...what am I saying, you know the song.

What you don’t know is that it’s a great writing lesson that even YOU can understand, you dopey bastard. Allow me to explain.

The Basics

“Night Moves” starts out as an average classic rock song. Describe some Midwest-y characters, a little bit about the decade, that sort of thing. It was the song that moved Bob Seger from “local boy done good” to international rock star.

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Photos via the author

I recently put in some time in the chair with my favorite tattoo artist. This sounds like I have a lot of tattoos; I don’t. I have three, one of which is a little gray sun on my neck that I picked right off the board one random day when I was nineteen with fifty bucks in my pocket. I found this artist much the same way I found my sweet little sun—I drove around for a while with an idea and some cash until I got to a tattoo parlor with some cool designs in the window. You know, real scientific. 

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So many classic couplings spring to mind when we think of the greatest literary love affairs: Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy (or Bridget Jones and Mark Darcy?), Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester, Cathy and Heathcliff, Romeo and Juliet. And not to mention the more torrid romances novels have gifted us, such as Lady Chatterley and Oliver Mellors from Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Emma Bovary and Rodolphe Boulanger from Madame Bovary, and Atonement’s Cecilia Tallis and Robbie Turner.

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I’m not going to waste time on anyone looking to disagree with the general premise: Men don’t read romance.

Yes, SOME men read romance. Because if there’s a thing to be done, there’s a guy out there doing it, doing it with gusto, and I applaud his efforts.

But if you know anything about books and readers, you know that romance is not popular with the fellas.

Let’s skip the discussion of whether or not this is true. The interesting part is the Why.

Why don’t men read romance?